The Los Angeles County District Prosecutor, Nathan Hochman, said Monday that he is asking the court to withdraw the motion of the previous resentment district prosecutor for the Menéndez brothers, calling the defense statements of the brothers “lies.”
“We are prepared to move forward” with the audience about his case of resontent, Hochman said at a press conference on Monday. “However, we are asking the court to withdraw the motion of the previous district prosecutor of resentment, because we believe that there are legitimate reasons and the interests of justice justify that withdrawal.”
The resentment hearing is scheduled for March 20 and 21.
The Los Angeles County District Prosecutor, Nathan Hochman, talks about the resentment of Erik and Lyle Menéndez for the murders of their parents during a press conference in the center of Los Angeles, on January 3, 2025.
Damian Dovarganes/AP, file
The request to withdraw the resontent motion is “based on the current state of the registration and the current and continuous failure of the Menéndez brothers to show a total vision and accept full responsibility for their murders,” Hochman said in a statement. “If they finally presented and admitted unequivocally and sincerely and completely accept the responsibility of their lies of self -defense and the attempt to subordinate the perjury in which they dedicated themselves, then the court should weigh such information on the analysis of rehabilitation and resentment, as people will.”
Lyle and Erik Menéndez are serving life without the possibility of probation.
In October, the then District Prosecutor of the County of the George Gascón announced that it supported the resentment for the brothers. Gascón recommended that their life sentences without the possibility of removal of probation, and said they should be sentenced by murder, which would be a 50 -year sentence to life imprisonment. Because both brothers were less than 26 years old at the time of crimes, they would be eligible for probation immediately with the new prayer.
The Prosecutor’s Office said that their resentment recommendations take into account many factors, including rehabilitation in prison and abuse or trauma that contributed to the crime. Gascón praised the work that Lyle and Erik Menéndez did behind bars to rehabilitate and help other inmates.
In these photos of reservations taken on October 10, 2024, Erik and Lyle Menéndez are shown.
CRDC.
Weeks after Gascón’s announcement, he lost his career for re -election against Hochman.
When Hochman assumed the position on December 3, he promised to review all the facts before reaching his own decision. He said the effort included talking to all prosecutors and defense lawyers involved, as well as reviewing thousands of pages of judicial presentations, trial transcripts and confidential records of the prison.
Hochman’s announcement on Monday comes days after one of the cousins of the brothers, Tamara Goodell, criticized the district prosecutor in a letter to the civil rights division of the United States prosecutor’s office.
Goodell accused Hochman of being “hostile, derogatory and condescending” during two meetings in January with family members who wish to free the brothers. She said that “the lack of compassion was palpable, and the family felt not only ignored but rather intimidated and revictimized.”
Joan Andersen Vandermolen, Centro, speaks with the media surrounded by relatives of Erik and Lyle Menéndez, and lawyer Mark Geragos, to the extreme left, and lawyer Bryan Freedman, to the right, during a press conference after an audience in Los Angeles, on November 25, 2024.
Damian Dovarganes/AP, file
Goodell wants Hochman to eliminate and the case delivered to the Office of the Attorney General.
This case dates back to 1989, when Lyle Menéndez, then 21 years old, and Erik Menéndez, then 18 years old, shot and killed their parents, Kitty and José Menéndez, in the house of Beverly Hills of the family.
The defense said the brothers acted in self -defense after enduring years of sexual abuse by their father. The prosecutors claimed that they killed for money.
Erik Menéndez and his brother Lyle (R) listen during an audience prior to the trial, on December 29, 1992, in Los Angeles after the two declared themselves innocent in the deaths of a shotgun of August 1989 of their parents, José and Mary Louise Menéndez.
Vince Bucci/AFP through Getty Images
His first judgment ended in a null trial. Lyle and Erik Menéndez were sentenced in 1996 after their second trial.
The brothers were sentenced to two consecutive perpetual chain terms without probation.
Erik Menéndez with his lawyer Leslie Abramson and his brother Lyle Menéndez in Los Angeles, on March 9, 1994.
Ted Soqui/Sygma through Getty Images, Archive
In addition to resentment, the brothers have been following two other paths towards freedom.
One is his request for habeas corpus, which they presented in 2023 for a review of two new evidence not presented at the trial: a letter that Erik Menéndez wrote to his cousin eight months before the murders detail his alleged abuse of his father, and the accusations of a former member of the band of children who revealed in 2023 that he was raped by Jose Menendez.
Hochman announced in February that he asked the court to deny the request of habeas corpus, arguing that the new evidence is not credible or admissible.
Erik Menéndez, on the left, and is Brother Lyle, in front of his house of Beverly Hills on November 30, 1989.
Los Angeles Times through Getty Images, Archive
The third way to freedom is through the clemency application of the brothers, who has submitted to the governor of California Gavin Newsom.
On February 26, Newsom announced that it is ordering the Board of probation to carry out a “90 -day comprehensive risk assessment” on whether the brothers represent “an unreasonable risk for the public” if clemency and released are granted.
“There is no guarantee of results here,” said Newsom. “But this process simply provides more transparency … as well as provides us with more due diligence before making any determination of clemency.”
This is a development story. Consult the updates again.
